This invention generally relates to accessories for playing the game of golf, and more particularly to a golf tee dispensers adapted to contain and manually dispense golf tees.
Retaining golf tees in a container for ready access within other than the golfer's pocket or wedged behind his ear has always been a major obstacle to the playing of a round of golf. However, prior art discloses devices which, to some extent, provide a more civilized means for dealing with this problem.
Referring to the drawings, FIGS. 7 through 10 disclose two prior art devices which attempt to serve this need. Referring firstly to FIGS. 7 and 8, that prior art device includes an elongated cylindrical tube E having a transversely cut groove F forming an inwardly extending sector line with respect to the circular cross section of tube E. Elastic O-ring G is fitted within groove F and circumferentially around tube E. By this arrangement, O-ring portion G' must be outwardly flexed in order to manually dispense a golf tee GT.
The prior art device depicted in FIGS. 9 and 10 also includes an elongated tube J provided at its lower end with a tight fitting flexible cup K having an aperture L centrally therethrough. Cup K is intended to snuggly fit over the end of tube J so that, when a golf tee GT is manually dispensed, aperture L is flexibly expanded and enlarged to allow the golf tee GT to pass therethrough one at a time.
However, both of these prior art devices pose problems in function and operation. The first prior art device shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 tends to allow the pointed lower end of each golf tee GT to pass on the wrong side of O-ring segment G' making manual dispensing impossible, while the flexible cup K of the embodiment in FIGS. 9 and 10, even when glued in place, tends to detach from tube J during the downward force exerted thereon by manual dispensing of a golf tee GT.
The present invention provides a golf tee dispenser which clearly avoids both of the above-referenced problems and provides unique and simple structure for achieving the intended function of both storing a plurality of golf tees while manually dispensing one golf tee at a time consistently.